by Martha Woods
“I need you to get everyone on a plane to Jared and Calla, right now,” she blurted.
“What?” he murmured, sitting up straight. “Is everything alright?”
“I don’t know. Calla’s having contractions or something and bleeding. Jared is freaking out, which freaks me out.”
Jared was one to keep a very level head. The fact he was worried would have worried anyone. Morgan stood and stretched, “Alright, I’ll round them up and head to the airport. What time is it?”
“8. P.M., thankfully.”
“Shit, I’ve been asleep for an hour,” Morgan groaned, kicking himself for having dozed off for so long. Why was it he could never close his eyes for just a few minutes? Right, sleep deprivation would do that to you. “I’ll call you when we’re headed out. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Once he hung up, Morgan headed down the hall and knocked on each door. “Everyone get in here! We have to leave, right now!” he bellowed. Then, he received the last response he anticipated. Dead silence. His brows knitted together and he yelled again, “Come on! We have to go!”
When no one responded him, Morgan threw open the nearest door, which was Edna’s room. Stepping in just by a foot, he switched on the light and scanned the room. No one was in there. Groaning, he checked each of the rooms, panic building with each empty room. Where in the hell could they be?! Passing through the kitchen, he walked into the backyard, his rounded brown eyes desperately scanning the darkness. “Cody?! Charley?! Edna?!” he called into the eerie pitch black.
Where could they have gone?! Rounding the house, he walked into the front yard to see all of the cars still there. “What the fuck?!” Morgan groaned and withdrew his phone yet again. As soon as Veronica picked up, he blurted out. “We have a major fucking issue… Everyone is gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“As in the house is empty, the cars are all here, and I have no idea where they could be,” he answered. “Fuck! How could I let myself fall asleep? I knew something like this would happen!”
“You can’t blame yourself… I just don’t understand how all of them got out, without you knowing… Even Cody and Charley?”
“Yes,” he groaned. “I don’t get it either… But, I bet you that Benjamin was the one up to it.”
“Ben? What makes you say that?”
“You know he wasn’t happy with all this. He felt like a prisoner. And he’s been weirdly flirting with Abigail, trying to get close with her. I figured he was just bored and horny…”
“I’ll send some of the guys to help you track them down. I can’t believe they managed to get Charley too… She would be really handy right now.”
“Tell me about it,” he grumbled. Charley was the best at tracking people down for them, not to mention speedily, since she could teleport. “Get the guys here, you, Kristian, and Tessa go ahead to Jared and Calla. If it comes to it, find a doctor that does house calls. We’ll change them if we have to.”
“Good thinking. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Morgan sat down on the couch, putting his face in his hands. He felt utterly useless in the moment that his family needed him the most. Even if Veronica told him not to blame himself, he couldn’t help but feel guilty. If he hadn’t fallen asleep, it wouldn’t have happened. However, it did feel incredibly convenient that it would happen the first time he ever took a nap there at night. It had to have been planned out. No matter what, he was going to wring Benjamin’s neck by the end of it.
* * *
“You’re literally delusional if you think you’re going to get away with this,” Cody mused from his spot on the floor, flexing his wrists against the handcuffs. While they were utterly useless besides keeping his hands in place, since he could have broken them easily, it was the threat of deadman’s blood that kept him contained. Abigail had a pistol on her hip, each silver bullet within it soaked in the poison. The only way they had gotten him there, was by hitting him in the head with some blunt object.
“Quiet, leech,” Benjamin hissed at him, pulling Abigail down into his lap as he sat at the dining table. Cody wasn’t entirely sure where they were, but they were in a tiny abandoned shack, a fire roaring in a small fireplace against the far wall.
Cody’s eyes rolled at the oh-so-original insult. Did anyone really think that hurt their feelings? He watched as Benjamin held the witch close as they studied papers they had sprawled across the table. What on earth were they even planning to do? In his mind, it didn’t even matter. The two of them had the collective worldly experience as a homeschooled teenager. There was no way whatever plan they were hatching would be thought out enough. His eyes panned over the room, his heart sinking at the sight of Edna, still unconscious with blood trickling down the side of her face. The poor elderly woman had been dragged along just as he had. He hoped that the wound on her head wouldn’t be enough to do her in. She had showed them all nothing but kindness. He almost couldn’t believe that the two of them would hurt her like that. Almost.
“Are you sure that’s the best way to go in? It seems like they would just overpower us and kill us…” Abigail whispered to Benjamin.
“Trust me. There’s not going to be any sneaking in there. Guards will sure to catch all of us. Not to mention, trying to tote all three of them along like that? It’ll be impossible. We have them to hand over to get us in the door. Then we use the information we have to leverage what we want.”
Cody’s brows came together. Were… were they talking about going to the Calder? Surely they couldn’t be so stupid…
“I suppose you’re right about that,” Abigail sighed. “I just haven’t seen them in so long… And the way I left…”
Benjamin tilted her face to look him in the eye, “They won’t care about that once they hear what we have to say. They are in disarray. We’re offering them highly valuable information, and giving them a way to rise from the ashes. We’ll be indispensable to them. Don’t you worry.” They were going to go to the Calder. It sounded like Cody, Edna, Charley, and Kristian’s child were going to be the collateral they used to get back in.
“You’re going to get us all killed. Including the both of you,” Cody announced firmly.
Abigail’s head jerked to the side, glancing over to him with wide eyes. Her fear was momentary, it draining from her face when Cody fell over when a book collided with his head. “Will you be quiet before I gag you!” Benjamin hissed.
Cody was already starting to accept the fact that no matter how this went down, he was going to die. If he tried to run, they would shoot him, weakening him, and then kill him. No matter what, at the Calder, they would eventually be executed. So, there was no point in trying to appease the measly male witch. As he sat back up, Cody spoke boldly, “How kinky of you. Do I at least get some foreplay first? I mean, the cuffs are a nice touch, but…”
Benjamin moved Abigail from his lap and reached into the single dufflebag they had packed in preparation of the trip. He then strolled over to Cody, as leisurely as possible. Cody didn’t flinch as the fair-haired man towered over him with a cynical smirk on his face. “Open up,” he cooed condescendingly to Cody, a bitter chuckle following the words.
“No please?” Cody scoffed sarcastically.
To his surprise, Benjamin laughed—and laughed heartily. Then, he reacted just as Cody anticipation, springing a fist back and blowing Cody across the face. As Cody collided yet again with the cold, splintered ground, Benjamin kneeled over him and stuffed a rag into his mouth. Cody was sure Benjamin was waiting to see Cody splinter with anger, but all he did was smile around the rag. He wasn’t going to give that bastard any satisfaction before he died. At that point, his only hope was that they were stopped before sharing the news of Kristian’s child with the Calder. It was an innocent life that shouldn’t be tossed into the dangerous mix. They had all worked so hard to keep it completely under wraps.
* * *
With further inves
tigation, Morgan found remnants of a ritual site in the yard, one that was similar to the one the Firehaven had performed when the escaped from the Calder compound. Morgan’s mind ran a mile a minute upon finding it, knowing that it was possible they could be anywhere at all. With how Benjamin was flirting with Abigail, they could have decided to simply run away into the sunset together, taking the others just because they could have ratted them out. He worried for his comrades, knowing that they were utterly disposable to the insane couple. There was simply no way they went willingly. Was it possible they had already killed them? No, clearly they had a reason for having taken Charley and Cody, or else they could have figured out a way to slip away alone. Morgan was still having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that they had managed to escape the house without stirring him at all. Even though Veronica tried to tell him not to be angry with himself, it was hard not to be.
While he awaited for the other vampires to join him so that they could embark on the manhunt together, Morgan tore apart Edna’s house in search of clues, trying to figure out if all three of the Calder bastards had been in on it, and who the mastermind of it was. Based on instinct, he searched Abigail’s room first. Clothes and knickknacks covered the ground as Morgan disassembled everything in sight. While it wasn’t entirely fruitless, the only objects of question he found were occult items that he had no idea what they meant—and the only witch he knew to help with that was currently in labor.
Doing his best not to get discouraged, he moved room from room, being as thorough as possible so that nothing had to be searched again and precious time be wasted. The way he saw it, there were three options on the table: they were going after the baby, they were returning to the Calder compound, or they were running away. While at first, he had stressed beyond reason that they could have literally been anywhere at all, Morgan realized that if they had been trying to run away, there wouldn’t have been a point to taking Cody and Charley with them.
With the help of fast cars and police scanners, the vampires coming to help Morgan managed to make it to him in record time. As a precautionary measure, knowing that the search couldn’t stop until the Calder witches were found, Veronica had sent with the vampires a single flask of Calla’s blood; it being the only remaining blood from the last time she had donated her blood for the family. By the time the guys arrived, Morgan had searched every room in the small, cluttered house, and was finishing searching through the final bookshelf in the den. His efforts had slowed and motivation drained by that point, assuming nothing of importance would be found since the entire shelf was filled with collectibles and various home décor that didn’t seem to be from the occult, but rather store bought. The vampires stood across the room, not daring to touch anything and insult Morgan. He called over to him as he finished up, sharing all the information he possibly could with them that he had collected about all the witches over the course of the months he had spent with them.
Just as he placed the final wicker basket of assorted items back down on the shelf, Morgan noticed a small white corner sticking out from underneath the basket. With brows furrowed, Morgan lifted the basket and looked underneath. A folded piece of paper was taped to the underside. Very carefully he peeled the tape away from the paper, not wanting to tear it. Once the thin paper was freed, he unfolded it, it being much larger than he anticipated, and confusion sank into his face. “What is it, Morgan?” one of the vampires called over.
“It’s a blueprint of some kind, but I don’t know where for… It’s definitely not this house. It’s too big.” Pacing through the room, he made his way to the kitchen table and laid it out. Himself and the five vampires accompanying him circled the table, all taking in the blueprint.
“It looks like a layout of just one floor. There are staircases here and here,” one named Jeremy pointed out.
“There’s no city name… no building name…” Morgan murmured.
“Do you think this Edna’s, or one of the others?”
Morgan sat in a chair, leaning down to take in the smaller details of the map, “I’m not sure…” he answered as he scanned it closely. There was handwriting all over it, detailing the furniture and various measurements of the room, but Morgan wasn’t sure how old the writing was or who it belonged to. As he searched, he noticed very small red pen marks throughout the blueprint. What did those mean? There was no writing to indicate what the marks meant. The ink looked fresh, however, not at all faded like the rest of it. Was it possible they were just little errors or mishaps? Then he noticed there were two to three at each entryway. Instantly, it clicked and his finger jabbed the paper. “Someone was marking where guards are. Guards and a building this size… This has to be the Calder compound.”
“But the question is, who put the map there?”
“I’m not sure, but I know it was recent. This has to be their plan.” Standing from the chair, he began folding the map and then immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Veronica. As soon as the other end picked up, he wasted no time to spit out the information. “I think they are heading to the Calder compound. I have no idea what for, but you know nothing good can come of it. We’re heading there right now.”
“Be careful and please keep me updated. We’re at the airport now. The next flight out there doesn’t leave for another hour...”
He could hear the stress in her voice, and knew that if she was stressing out, Kristian and Tessa had to be an absolute mess. “At least you have a time, right? Labor can take hours and hours… How is she doing?”
“She’s alright, just having a lot of contractions. Jared said there hadn’t been anymore bleeding, so maybe it was from her water breaking? I don’t know… It’s just so early… Even for her…”
“I know. Just try and keep them calm and focus on getting there. Everything else is out of our control. Better to be level-headed and focused than erratic, no matter the situation.”
Veronica let out a heavy sigh, “I know, you’re right… I just wish you were here. You’ve always been great at being the cool and collected one.”
“I wish I was there too, believe me. I’ve got to go, though. I’ll keep you updated as much as I can.”
After exchanging goodbyes, Morgan climbed into his car, not bothering to wait for the others to follow suit before he peeled out of the dirt driveway. Time was of the essence, if they weren’t already late. Rage and anxiety coursed through his veins. Everyone had had their differences with Tessa and Kristian, but they were family, and so was their baby. No one messed with Morgan’s family without having his wrath to answer to.
* * *
The pain was getting to be too much for Calla. Their attempt to get her help to the cabin had been for naught. The nearby hospital was completely packed due to a recent snowstorm and didn’t have any doctors they could send to assist in an at-home birth. The best they could do would be send an ambulance, however that simply wasn’t an option. Calla’s body chemistry, while fairly close to a human’s, wasn’t exactly the same and would set off alarm bells for anyone. Same for the baby. She yearned to be with her clan, knowing that they had remedies for labor pains that were similar to an epidural. There was nothing for her, however, but Jared’s comfort. And while it was all she needed emotionally, the physical pain was unraveling every encouraging whisper Jared gave her. It felt like the skin on her knuckles would split at any moment from how tightly she gripped the bars on the headboard. Jared laid behind her, wrapping himself around her completely to soothe her hot body, only moving occasionally to check to see how dilated she was.
Pain and anxiety made a horrible concoction in her, leaving her unable to do anything but weep. What if she lost the baby? They had made it so far, and there was no second chances for Tessa and Kristian. Calla didn’t want to lose their child. She didn’t want to risk them not being willing to help her and Jared have a chance at a child. All she could do was hope with every molecule in her body that everything was okay. Despite her tears and cries of agony, Calla knew the
pain was only temporary. In a matter of hours, it would be over and she would have successfully brought a life into the world. It felt next to impossible to put mind over matter in that instance, however.
She could feel Jared’s sorrow and feeling of uselessness as he held her. He wanted to be of more help. His hands stroked the sides of her stomach, trying to relax her muscles before another contraction hit. It was a sweet effort, but was for a lost as another intense contraction grabbed hold of Calla’s body, just a couple of minutes after the last past. As she braced herself and did nothing to muffle her cries of agony, Calla could feel his cool hands drifting down her body as he positioned himself to check her pelvis.
“Okay… Calla… I… I think it’s time…” Jared stammered. “I think you need to start pushing.”
A bolt of sheer panic rushed through her at those words. No, no, no. She was not ready for that. Calla managed to situated herself into a sitting position. Moving around made her all the more aware of the sweat that was already covering her face. “No… We can’t… They aren’t here yet…” she muttered. They had to wait for Kristian and Tessa to get there, she didn’t want them missing the birth of their child.
“Sweetheart, there’s no holding this off… I know it’s scary. I can’t imagine being in your position right now… But just know I’m right here and I promise I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you and that baby are okay. I’ve got you, Calla.”
The way he stared deep into her tear-filled eyes, she knew that he meant every single syllable that passed his lips. Calla chanted in her head that the pain was only temporary. The quicker it happened, the sooner she could rest. It wasn’t like there was anything they could do to hold off on it, anyhow. It was going to happen, and with only her and Jared there. At a loss for words, Calla just nodded in response and watched as he positioned himself the best he could. She propped herself up on the pillows and kept her eyes glued to Jared, waiting for his instructions.